Sahel's chronic hunger crisis demands long-term solutions

"The Sahel crisis is about much more than rain, or lack of it. Yes, in the years when the rains fail more people are pushed into hunger, but the NGO message is that this is something that will take years to fix...'One good harvest doesn't lead automatically to self-sufficiency in food production,' says Mamadou Diop from Action Against Hunger, ACF International in Bamako. 'It's hard to explain to donors that there are people who have basically been living with malnourishment for many years, even when the harvest has been 'normal'."